Han Xiao

About

Han Xiao serves as the Director of the SynthX Center and holds the position of Associate Professor within the Department of Chemistry, Biosciences, and Bioengineering at Rice University. His research focuses on understanding complex biological systems and developing novel therapeutic approaches through the interface of chemistry and biology. His program emphasizes the development of chemical tools to precisely probe and manipulate biological systems, with interests including adding new building blocks with unique properties into biological systems, enhancing chemical biological tools for various applications, and exploring their therapeutic utilities in cancer, autoimmune, and metabolic diseases. Han Xiao's work has a strong translational focus, seeking to initiate new clinical opportunities and contribute to advances in chemical biology, glycobiology, and cancer immunology.

Research topics

• Biochemistry
• Immunology
• Biology
• Medicine
• Internal medicine
• Oncology
• Chemistry
• Cancer research
• Organic chemistry
• Cell biology

Selected publications

• Photostable Small-Molecule NIR-II Fluorescent Scaffolds that Cross the Blood–Brain Barrier for Noninvasive Brain Imaging

  Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2022 · 115 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  formazanate dyes in the NIR-II region. In murine glioblastoma models, these dyes can differentiate tumors from normal brain tissues. We anticipate that this new type of small molecule will find potential applications in creating probes and drugs relevant to theranostic for brain pathologies.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Precision Modification of Native Antibodies

  Bioconjugate Chemistry · 2021 · 41 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  usage. Nevertheless, additional chemical treatment or protein engineering of antibodies is required for incorporation of the bioorthogonal handles, processes that often affect antibody folding, stability, and/or production yield and cost. Accordingly, concurrent with advances in the fields of bioorthogonal chemistry and protein engineering, there is growing interest in site-specifically labeling native (nonengineered) antibodies without chemical or enzymatic treatments. In this review, we highli…

  DOI

• Real-time imaging of protein microenvironment changes in cells with rotor-based fluorescent amino acids

  Nature Chemical Biology · 2025-09-11 · 7 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Engineering unnatural cells with a 21st amino acid as a living epigenetic sensor

  Nature Communications · 2025-10-23 · 5 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Living animals rely extensively on post-translational modifications (PTMs) to regulate protein activity, stability, subcellular localization, and protein-protein interactions. These modifications are tightly controlled by the balance of “writer” and “eraser” enzymes, which add or remove PTMs on proteins. Current strategies to measure writer and eraser activities in living animals largely depend on invasive methods, such as single-cell sequencing, quantitative mass spectrometry, or activity-based…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Biocatalytic Synthesis of N-Protected α-Amino Acids through 1,3-Nitrogen Migration by Nonheme Iron Enzymes

  Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2025-11-20 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  generates an iron-nitrene intermediate capable of aminating benzylic and allylic α-C-H bonds of carboxylic acids. Directed evolution has been performed to optimize the IPNS variant to accommodate a broad range of azanyl esters, yielding α-amino acids (24 examples) with up to 92% yield, 1477 total turnover number (TTN), and 99% enantiomeric excess (ee).

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Targeting Siglec-9/Sialoglycan Interactions to Enhance NK Functions During HIV Infection

  NIH · $3.1M · 2021–2027

• Modulation of Epigenetic Target in the Bone to Treat Breast Cancer Metastasis

  NIH · $1.9M · 2023–2028

• Engineering Proteins with Noncanonical Amino Acids

  NIH · $2.6M · 2019–2029

Frequent coauthors

• Rori Salvaggio

  Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

  38 shared

• Wendy Perchick

  Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

  37 shared

• Lior Gazit

  37 shared

• Brett A. Simon

  37 shared

• Dmitriy Gorenshteyn

  37 shared

• Alice Zervoudakis

  Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

  37 shared

• Lynn Adams

  Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

  37 shared

• Mikel Ross

  Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

  37 shared

Labs

• XIAO LABPI

  Not provided

Education

• Postdoctoral Fellow, Chemistry

  Stanford University

  2017

• PhD, Chemistry

  Scripps Research Institute

  2015

• BS in Chemistry, Chemistry

  University of Science and Technology of China

  2010

Awards & honors

• Level 2 Breast Cancer Research Program Breakthrough Award (D…
• Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award for Early Stage Inv…
• Norman Hackerman - Welch Young Investigator Award
• CPRIT Faculty Recruitment Award

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• Gustavo Scuseriah-138
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